Occupational Enablement through the Crosstrainer Programme: Experiences of early childhood development practitioners

Abstract

Introduction:

In rural South Africa, inadequately trained early childhood (ECD) practitioners and inequity of access have been placed as top priorities to address.  Enabling occupation is the primary goal and core competency of occupational therapists and enabling the occupation of the ECD practitioners may address these problems.  The Cross `Trainer Programme (CTP) aims to do this by training and equipping ECD practitioners.  ECD practitioners were therefore approached on the occupational enablement through the CTP.

Method:

Demographic questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were utilised.  The data was analysed through the cyclical process of coding.

Results:

Three major themes emerged from the data analysis, namely The Great Imbalance, Enabling Occupation, and Disabling Occupation. The participants expressed the difficulty of fulfilling the need for their role in their communities.  The CTP relieves these difficulties and enables their occupation through more knowledge, confidence, creative alternatives to resources, and guidance in managing their time, incorporating all six enablement foundations.  The CTP disables their occupation through the language barrier, unclear scaling of the activities, and insufficient involvement.

Conclusions:

The CTP enables the occupation of the ECD practitioners and the children. Through translating the programme, adding more activities, and increasing involvement and mentoring, the enablement through the CTP will improve.